Increasing demands for information prompted by the war on terrorism and the push for homeland security have added to the Department of Defense's concerns about ceding spectrum to industry, according to Steven Price, who heads the Pentagon's newly created office for spectrum management. Companies promoting third-generation (3G) wireless systems have been lobbying the government to free government-controlled bands in the 1710-1755 MHz and 2110-2150 MHz spectrum, which under the Clinton Administration was scheduled for auction by September.
The President's fiscal year 2003 budget request for NASA, released Feb. 4, cuts the budget for human spaceflight from $6.83 billion in fiscal year 2002 to $6.13 billion, while boosting funds for science, aeronautics, and technology research to $8.84 billion from the previous year's $8.05 billion.
The A160 Hummingbird vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) successfully conducted its first forward flight Jan. 29 in California, flying autonomously and climbing to an altitude of 1,200 feet. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing the Hummingbird with prime contractor Frontier Systems, Inc. of Irvine, Calif. The program is budgeted at $17 million, with prototype demonstrations targeted for April 2003.
A Washington nonprofit group and the Congressional Budget Office are at odds over whether a new CBO report shows that a layered missile defense program would cost $238 billion or more. The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation placed portions of a CBO report on the estimated costs of selected missile defense systems on its website, wwww.shieldofdreams.org, before the report's Jan. 31 release. The center said the report shows that missile defense could cost $238 billion or more over the next 15 years.
MANTECH SYSTEMS ENGINEERING CORP. of Fairfax, Va., will provide engineering and technical mechanical support at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., under an $82.3 million contract. Goddard operates the Environmental Test and Integration Facility to assemble instruments and satellites and verify their ability to withstand the rigors of launch and the extreme environment of space.
RAMOS DELAY: The scheduled fiscal 2005 launch of the two satellites in the Russian-American Observation Satellite (RAMOS) program will be delayed by a year, to FY '06, due to congressional funding cuts and slower-than-anticipated progress in negotiating a government-to-government agreement with Russia, according to a spokeswoman for the Defense Department. Without explanation, the FY '02 defense appropriations act cut $20 million from the Bush Administration's request for RAMOS.
NO CAPS: In reviewing the Administration's fiscal year 2003 budget request, Congress will not be constrainted by spending caps, according to Stanley E. Collender, a budget consultant at the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm. "The budget process has changed dramatically," says Collender, who has worked as a staff member on the House and Senate budget committees. "The budget process restrictions that limited what the Congress and the president could do on spending and taxes are gone.
President Bush's $379.3 billion defense budget request for fiscal year 2003 includes $68.7 for procurement and $53.9 billion for research and development, funds that will benefit a number of programs that the Administration says will provide "transformational" military capabilities. Unmanned aerial vehicles, precision guided weapons and space programs would receive a large share of the funding increases requested for procurement and research and development.
ANDREWS SPACE&TECHNOLOGY of Seattle will perform market analysis, business planning, systems engineering and launch vehicle design services in support of Northrop Grumman's second-generation Reusable Launch Vehicle program. The work will be done under a $15.7 million contract that Northrop Grumman was awarded in December by NASA for its Space Launch Initiative program. Andrews Space&Technology's part of the work is worth about $1.8 million.
KNIGHTHAWK ALIGHTS: The Navy plans to introduce the Sikorsky MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter in a Feb. 8 ceremony at NAS North Island, Calif. The aircraft, with a cockpit designed by Lockheed Martin, will replace the aging CH-46 Sea Knight. Its primary missions will be carrier battle group logistical support such as movements of bombs, supplies and personnel, and amphibious ready group search and rescue operations, the Navy said.
OUT WITH THE OLD: Unlike the Boeing Co. of yesteryear, the new Boeing will be an integrated aerospace company focusing on shareholder value, according to Boeing Chief Financial Officer Mike Sears, who spoke at the Ninth Annual Bear Stearns Commercial Aerospace and Defense Conference in New York. "We're not going to be a holding company that's going to hold major businesses," he says. "But in fact, we're going to be one company.
NASA Missions - Kennedy Space Center - Cape Canaveral Air Force, Station, Florida (NET indicates a tentative launch date) Date/2002Vehicle Pad Mission Feb. 5 NET Pegasus XL CCAFS HESSI(NASA-GSFC/UCB) government civil launch 3:21-5:21 p.m. EST Feb. 28 OV-102 (Columbia) 39-A KSC STS-109/Third Hubble Space
The absence of two major programs from the Missile Defense Agency's slate allows for increases in other programs, including the sea-, air-, and space-based boost-phase intercept programs, according to a senior defense official. The Bush Administration's fiscal year 2003 defense budget request includes $7.763 billion for missile defense programs, down slightly from the enacted FY '02 level of $7.775 billion.
The U.S. Air Force plans to provide sizable funding increases in fiscal 2003 for the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV), Space Based Radar, Space Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High) and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) programs, according to Air Force and Defense Department budget documents.
The Bush Administration's fiscal 2003 NASA budget is expected to propose cutting spending over the previous year by 13 percent for the International Space Station and 2 percent for the space shuttle, a congressional source told The DAILY Feb. 1. The FY '02 VA-HUD-NASA appropriations act provided about $2 billion for ISS and $3.3 billion for the shuttle.
Proposed funding for the procurement of new aircraft, spare parts and modifications will account for about 15 percent of the Army's requested budget for fiscal year 2003, a senior Army budget official said Feb. 1. For FY '03, the Army requested a budget of nearly $91 billion, up from the nearly $81 billion appropriated by Congress for FY '02.
QDR QUESTIONS: One thing to look for in 2003 budget numbers is linkage between the Administration's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and funding provided to achieve the plans laid out in the document, according to military analyst Andrew Krepinevich, who heads the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Finding this may be difficult because the QDR is vague on how to achieve the military's operational goals, he says. "The 'what' is there in the QDR, but the 'how' is not there," Krepinevich says.
Information technology will take on a greater role in defense spending over the next few years given new requirements for homeland defense and battlefield interoperability, a senior Lockheed Martin Corp. official said Jan. 31.
BOEING SPACE AND COMMUNICATIONS has delivered a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for final preparations for its March launch on an Atlas II rocket. The Boeing 601, named TDRS-I, is part of a trio of TDRS satellites that will replenish and augment the current TDRS fleet. The new satellites will add Ka-band capability to the fleet, according to Boeing, allowing for the use of higher data rates on a frequency band that is less heavily used than other bands. The first of the new satellites, TDRS-H, was launched in June 2000.
GLOBECAST, the broadcast services division of France Telecom, has leased additional Ku-band capability on Loral Skynet's Telstar 5 satellite to expand delivery of its direct-to-home World Television service and other services. "GlobeCast has been one of the leading forces in the industry to develop a strong marketplace for foreign broadcast networks across North America, helping to position Telstar 5 as the key satellite for world television programming in America," said Terry Hart, president of Loral Skynet.
With the smallest requested dollar growth compared with the Army and Air Force - $9.5 billion - "the Navy will continue to do what is working for us," according to a senior Navy official, who described the Navy and Marine Corps' $108.3 billion FY 2003 budget request.
